KIRKUS REVIEW

On the run from Diotech, the biotechnology company that created her, Sera has time traveled with her beloved Zen to an English farm in the year 1609.

When Zen becomes sick, however, and Sera uses her superhuman strength in front of witnesses, the two of them lose their safe haven. So begins a journey through time and geography that brings Sera to a future New York as well as to a hidden submarine. In the beginning, most of the duo’s plans and knowledge originate with Zen, but once he is confined to a sickbed, Sera begins scheming and acting on her own. She finds a rival (and the de rigueur third leg of a love triangle) in Kaelen, another Diotech creation who introduces himself to Sera as “like you....[o]nly better.” Sera’s real-world knowledge sometimes feels arbitrarily spotty: She’s never learned about sex, for instance, and when she comes to Zen feeling “this crazy...urge. Like a craving,” his offer to explain what’s happening by showing her comes off as more sinister than romantic. The mechanics of time travel, memory implants and other key plot elements don’t always hold up to scrutiny, but the point here is less airtight worldbuilding than romance, quick life-or-death action, and glimpses into an imagined past and future.

A solid second installment that should please fans of the first. (Science fiction. 12-18)

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